Amber heat health alerts like the one currently covering the North West, forecast around 37°C in parts of the region, are becoming a regular fixture of the UK summer. This one arrives in a summer the Met Office says could turn out to be the UK’s hottest on record, on the back of England’s driest July on record, in a series stretching back to 1836, with just 6.5mm of rain across the whole month.
For a commercial site, most of what a heatwave does isn’t obvious from the forecast. Its visible in how a window clean holds up, how a stressed lawn recovers, what happens in a bin store, and why a washroom is busier than usual.
What this heat does to a window clean
Once glass gets above around 50°C, which a south-facing pane easily reaches in direct August sun, water starts flashing off the surface in a matter of seconds. Whatever’s dissolved in that water, minerals, detergent, doesn’t get carried away with it. It stays behind as the hazy film.
That’s exactly why professional window cleaners plan their round by elevation and time of day, not straight round a building in whatever order is quickest: east-facing glass early, north-facing through the middle of the day since it stays coolest, south and west-facing glass left until early morning or late afternoon. On a normal week that’s a nice-to-have. In a heatwave, ignoring it is the difference between a clean finish and a smeared one.
What helps a stressed lawn
This July was the driest on record for England, and grass shows that faster than almost anything else on a site. RHS guidance on lawns in drought is more counterintuitive than most people expect: don’t water an established lawn, however brown it gets. The roots underneath stay alive, and the lawn greens up again once rain returns.
Mowing should slow down too. Raising the cutting height and cutting less often does more for a stressed lawn than sticking to a normal schedule, because longer grass shades its own roots and copes with dry spells better than grass cut short.
United Utilities confirmed in July that it has no hosepipe ban planned for the North West, with reservoir levels above average for the time of year, so watering isn’t restricted here the way it is in some other parts of England this summer. It just isn’t what a stressed lawn needs.
Bin stores need more than the usual routine
Wasp colonies peak in size in August, and that’s when the behaviour changes. Through the summer, worker wasps are fed by the larvae they tend in the nest. By August, most of that year’s larvae have matured, so the workers lose that food source at the same time natural insect prey starts to thin out. A hungrier colony turns to whatever sugar it can find, which is why wasps get more persistent around bins, drinks and food waste right now.
Flies move even faster in the heat. A housefly can go from egg to adult in as little as seven days in warm weather, against up to fifty days in cooler conditions. A bin store checked on the usual fortnightly cycle can go from clear to breeding in the time between visits.
The practical fix is straightforward: keep bin lids fully closed, not propped open, don’t let full bags sit out overnight, and check bin stores and waste areas more often while a hot spell lasts, even if that means breaking from whatever cycle was set for a normal week.
Washrooms need more
Warmth speeds up bacterial growth, and that includes the bacteria behind stale washroom smells. A washroom that copes fine most of the year can start to smell within hours in this kind of heat, especially with higher footfall as people wash up and cool down more often.
This is where a non-acidic formula actually earns its place on the label. Impact’s Perfumed Toilet Cleaner is a non-acidic pine formula, safe for septic systems, with a viscous, high-active formula that clings to the bowl for longer contact time than a quick rinse gives. It’s supplied in 1 litre bottles, available online or from the Liverpool trade counter.
Commercial cleaning services in Liverpool and janitorial supplies
Impact has been running site services and janitorial supply from Liverpool since 2007, covering window cleaning, grounds maintenance, pest control and washroom supplies across the Merseyside and North Wales.
If a site’s schedule needs adjusting for a hot spell, this one or the next one, our team can look at what’s actually needed and fit it into what’s already in place.